Shock find of South Sudan mass grave
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The UN says a mass grave with at least 34 bodies has been discovered in rebel-held Bentiu in South Sudan.

Sky News

25 Dec 2013

News

THE United Nations Security Council has agreed to almost double the size of the peacekeeping force in troubled South Sudan, adding nearly 6000 extra soldiers and police.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon had called for the UNMISS force to be increased to counter a major outbreak of violence, and member states agreed to increase the military contingent to 12,500 troops.

A parallel civilian police deployment will reach 1323.

But the vote only increased the maximum permitted size of the force.

Member states must still commit more troops to UN command, and Ban warned this "will not happen overnight''.

In the meantime, Council members demanded an end to hostilities between forces loyal to South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and to his rival deposed vice president Riek Machar.

Their statement expressed "grave alarm and concern regarding the rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian crisis" and warned that those responsible for war crimes would be held responsible.

Mass grave ... A UN helicopter transporting wounded civilians from Bor, the capital of Jonglei state and said to be the scene of fierce clashes between government troops and rebels, arrives at the airport in Juba, South Sudan. The UN says it has found a mass grave, providing evidence of ethnic killings.

The move comes after the UN revealed its staff had found a mass grave in Unity State.

UN rights chief Navi Pillay says a mass grave filled with around 35 bodies was found in the rebel-held town of Bentiu today, while there were at least two other mass graves in the capital Juba.

A spokeswoman for the Geneva-based office said on Tuesday that the bodies are among 75 ethnic Dinka who were reported to the UN as "unaccounted for and feared dead.''

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the victims were reportedly members of the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

Ms Shamdasani had initially said they had discovered 75 bodies, but later revised that account.

Word of the mass grave came as South Sudan undertook military operations to wrest back control of the city of Bor from rebels loyal to the country's former vice president. One potential complicating factor: The military said armed elements have entered a UN refugee camp in Bor that holds about 17,000 civilians.

The mass grave was found in Bentiu, said UN's human rights chief Navi Pillay. At least two other mass graves are reported to have been found in Juba, she said in a statement Tuesday.

Responding to the discovery, the government minister of information Michael Makuei Lueth said: "Of course Bentiu is under the control of the rebel leader Riek Machar, so we have nothing to do with that area.''

The United States and Ethiopia are leading efforts to open peace talks on the 10-day-old crisis. Officials say President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar have agreed to meet but specifics including the status of Machar's imprisoned compatriots are holding up talks.

South Sudanese troops are advancing on Bor in order to take it back from troops loyal to Machar, said military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer. Troops will also soon advance on another rebel-held city, Bentiu, in the oil-rich region of Unity state, he said.

"We have already started in Bor,'' Mr Lueth said.

The UN has staff in the country investigating the incidents of mass killings, said Pillay. It is unclear who is responsible for the killings, she said. The other two reported mass graves are in Jebel-Kujur and Newside, near Eden, she said.

The country's top UN humanitarian official said on Monday that he believes the death toll from 10 days of violence has surpassed 1000 but that there are no firm counts.

The official, Toby Lanzer, estimated that there are more than 100,000 internal refugees across the country seeking shelter from the violence.

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